Kevin Kostal in HUSH speculates on the rationale for nihilism among the young:
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Though the world has always been festering with unseen horrors, it is the young generations of the 2000s who have now become witness to them all at once. We can no longer feign ignorance of world ills because they’re right there on YouTube for all of us to see; Arab Spring protesters being violently beaten, the polar ice caps melting in dreadful time lapse, terrible injustices caught on video and posted across multiple blogs.
We are the generation being pushed to the very precipice of unprecedented ecological disaster, forced to face the fact that we may have only a few more years before hitting the “breaking point” of a problem we did not create. Older members of society complain that our young adults are freeloaders incapable of living independently, but with the global economic crisis, ever-increasing education costs, a ridiculous housing market and the highest debt of any generation, who can blame them? …
From spying governments to Fukushima to the destruction of the oceans, we as younger generations are bombarded from the get-go with such an abundance of intense issues that it seems impossible for anyone to do anything to change them. It’s at this point that many choose to disengage, not because they don’t care about what’s going on, but because it seems like there is realistically nothing that can be done. This generation’s apathy and disconnection doesn’t stem from simply not caring, but from caring too much.
Full article here.
This generation does not have exclusive insight into the situation. Personally, I despair for my wonderful grand-nieces and nephews, and am grateful in some ways that I will not be around to see much more than another 10-20 years or so. Meanwhile, I try to have some fun and do a little useful stuff here and there.
I too am not convinced that the forces of darkness can be overcome.
Any actual statistics here? This just sounds like speculation and anecdote. I certainly believe many people are disengaged, but that isn’t the same thing as nihilism, and is disengagement at any higher levels now than it ever was? Plus the vast majority of folks younger than 60 have lived in an era where things have worked out. Even big, bad things like the Cold War. So it isn’t that unreasonable for people to feel that things will work out. (Although that doesn’t explain all the doomers and paranoia that is also prevalent.)
Gord: I’d love to hear your debrief on yesterday’s conversation. I think he did say that NO ONE in Calgary is connecting the floods and climate change.
Here’s poet/teacher Taylor Mali’s take on “Like, you know, whatever.” Only when I read your post did I connect the two.
(I’m off to Burning Man until after Labour Day.)
Peter Ladner 604-760-1445 (cell/text) http://www.urbanfoodrevolution.com Twitter Facebook
It’s not just the millennials. I was born in the 60’s, grew up under the threat of nuclear winter, followed by the hope that came when the Berlin wall fell, which was then dashed by global warming and the long-term results of Thatcherism, Reaganism and Globalization. I hope for the best, but many days it is hard to be optimistic for the future…